Opportunism in Deal for Usinor
May Pay Off for Arbed, Aceralia

Edited by Hugo Dixon

Updated Nov. 19, 2001 12:01 a.m. ET

How to explain the conduct of Arbed and Aceralia? The Luxembourgeois and Spanish steelmakers have spent most of this year painstakingly stitching together a highly complex and synergy-rich merger with Usinor of France. Against the odds, they appear to have secured approval for the deal from the European Commission on acceptable terms. Yet at the very momento supremo, they are having second thoughts.

The pair want to haggle over the terms of the share exchange, under which they would receive 43.5% of the new entity, against...